Snowstorm Damages Millions of Shekels in Agriculture

Hundreds of dunams of Israeli land damaged by record storm over the weekend, including vegetables, Christmas tree crop.

By Tova Dvorin

First Publish: 12/15/2013, 8:12 AM

Snow as far as the eye can see (illustrative)

Ben Waxman

Israel's historic snowstorm over the weekend has caused millions of shekels of damages to agriculture, Maariv reported Sunday.

Much of the damage affected vegetable farms and greenhouses.

Farmers are hoping not to lose their profits and to receive compensation from the state to make up for the loss.

The Secretary of the Vegetable Farmers' Association, Meir Ifrah, reported that "hundreds of dunams in lettuce fields, and leafy green vegetable crops in open fields, have been damaged by hail and are not salvageable."

Hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of Christmas trees were also damaged in the storm.

In Central and Southern Israel, several greenhouses also collapsed - affecting Israel's tomato and bell pepper crops the most. Carrot and potato crops were also affected by the hail, as were this year's expected strawberry, avocado, and citrus fruit harvests.